Change
by angelwingprincess
Summary: Life is ever changing and for Rinoa Heartilly, some of those changes were made by a person who just happened to come into her life in one jarring moment. If she had never met him, the changes she had faced the previous year would never have happened. So when she sees him again, she suspects he'll play the same role. [Post-game, more of a one shot than a continued story. SeiNoa]


This is a drabble I had initially posted on Tumblr, but thought might also be good to toss up here. One of the many potential paths that the future could hold for our dear Rinoa Heartilly.

Life is ever changing and for Rinoa Heartilly, some of those changes were made by a person who just happened to come into her life in one jarring moment. If she had never met him, the changes she had faced the previous year would never have happened. So when she sees him again, she suspects he'll play the same role. [Post-game, more of a one shot than a continued story. SeiNoa]

* * *

Green eyes that had held so much warmth, so much laughter, so much _fire_. His eyes had always entranced her, even from the very beginning. He wasn't afraid to give anything his all or to speak his mind. He had a confidence she envied and gave her the attention she craved.

That had all passed with the changing from summer to fall.

Maybe part of the reason she had trouble, _still_ had trouble, moving on was that it never truly ended. There was never an official "break up". Just events that unfolded and pulled them apart before ripping what emotions she'd had for him into shreds; still there but mangled beyond recognition.

She'd once confessed that she thought it had been love. Later she convinced herself that it couldn't have been, that if it had truly been love then she wouldn't have started that slow fall for another scarred boy; one with blue eyes like a sky before a storm.

When the plan had been for her to be bait for Adel, to let herself be kidnapped in order to be the only host available for Ultimecia, she had not been sure it would work. The plan was hinged on him turning her over to a ruthless monster. That boy she had known would never hurt her, would never abandon her so completely, she was sure of it.

So she hoped, hoped, with all her heart that he would hear her voice and come back. Her feelings had changed and another was now in her heart, but she still held onto their memories tightly. Lips had moved in plea, reminding him that he would never want this, that he was better than this, but it was all for naught.

When he had thrown her on the dais, her scream had been one of heartbreak as well as fear. She was just a girl, a girl of seventeen, and still clinging to fairytales and happy endings that didn't exist in the real world. Let alone in a world for a sorceress.

The events of that day would haunt her, the emptiness in those once caring, green eyes. His voice, holding none of the compassion she had heard in their late nights. His hands rough, with none of the gentleness she had experienced under night sky and soft sheets. When she would wake up with screams in her throat, it would sometimes be to his haunting laughter and she would push herself into another's arms, one whose calm eyes would temper her storm and remind her it was over. One who helped piece her back together and mended her heart in many of the way it had been broken.

And she mended his and helped him love.

But she could never fully forget those green eyes or those summer days. When she returned to Timber to help the Owls, she avoided the places they had frequented. She was never sure if it was because she worried she would see him, or she was worried that she would _want_ to see him. Most days were good and time passed. Her heart was no longer aching so harshly and as the months went on, she found herself on the edge of another heart ache.

Blue eyes met her now, trying to explain something she didn't want to hear. They had drifted apart, the time away giving him time to think and he wanted to stay but he was unsure of himself, unsure of his emotions. She frightened him, he didn't have to say that aloud she just knew. In the ways she had known him or his thoughts in other ways. And she knew, knew, that her curse was to blame for this. She did not blame him but turned her hate and pain inward. He despaired at breaking his promise to her, to be her knight and be by her side, but she dismissed it. Told him she needed time. She wanted time to come to terms.

He left her only after severe insistence, with silence following his request to call him if she wanted to see him, as she watched his figure walk away. A curious thought wandered her numb mind, that this pain was not quite as debilitating as she would have expected. It hurt, caused her guilt and fed her ever growing hatred of her magic, but she remembered the boy with green eyes who had broken her heart over a year ago and the pain that had lingered.

Was love only meant to cause pain? And was the pain how you measured how strong that love had been? She was still too young to be sure but she knew that she could no longer hide from her memories. She went to the park, to a section of the small remnants of trees that would hold the festival gatherers during the summer months, watching lanterns fly into a starlit night.

She sat on a bench beneath their leaves, the small breeze bringing a chill she tried to ignore. Just as she tried to ignore the rest of the world, sitting in a place where she had once met the boy who would change her life so drastically.

The crunch of leaves made her head turn, the source of the noise another figure a few feet away with a tall frame and a familiar pair of green eyes. They looked older now, remorseful, and solemn. But still they drew her in and she could not look away as he watched her.

It was silent for a moment before she spoke. The wind twisting her hair about her face but she dared not to move.

"….Hey."

It was just a whisper, the smallest acknowledgement that he was there, but she still saw surprise in those eyes of his. His lips tightened and she wondered if he would just leave her there alone, to linger in her misery.

"Hey." He responded, his voice even but still somehow unsteady. Though they both still stayed still, she felt something in her heart move again. A mangled piece trying to itch its way back to the front, and she wondered, wondered if this boy who was now a man had walked in to change her life again.

Could she let herself be vulnerable to him again? To even allow him a small piece of her heart as acceptance and forgiveness?

The answer was simple.

He already had it, and she had never tried to take it back. And she wasn't sure she ever would.


End file.
